Environmental Hazards
Many environmental hazards make the Equestian Wasteland a contaminated landscape, poisoned by the many spells and projects that struck Equestria during the Great War. Common Balefire radiation An ubiquitous presence in the Equestrian Wasteland, balefire radiation is the magical residue of the larger, harmful spells that used balefire. When a living creature is exposed to it, it accumulates in one's body over time. A creature can withstand small amounts of radiation poisoning without severe consequences, but as it piles up, it causes sickness, mutations, and potentially death. It possesses a strong necromantic component, and prolonged exposure is often the cause of mutations of varying degrees. Most such mutations can harmful, but not always, and a restricted few can prove advantageous to the host. Ponies and zebras who survive severe radiation exposure are turned into ghouls. After the Great War, it has blanketed the lands of Equestria, and has been absorbed by all matter, including air, earth, food, and water. Its concentration in most open places is next to none, but several locations are still severely contaminated. Air filters are capable of purifying the air from radiation, and water talismans exist for cleansing contaminated waters. A living creature can be made resistant to radiation exposure by way of Rad-X, and if radiation is already in the body, Rad-Away allows the user to purge it from one's body and reverse its temporary effects. Killing Joke Killing Joke, normally only found in the Everfree Forest, is a generally lethal, poisonous plant that is able to cause instant transformation in those that touch it. Directly descended from Poison Joke and similar to its ancestor in many respects, this corrupted version still plays ironic jokes on those that come in contact with it. However, these jokes are lethally dangerous, as opposed to the (relatively) harmless tricks of Poison Joke. It almost always bases its effects on the fears, distresses, and distastes of its victims, and it is very likely to act upon the smallest of off-hand comments, no matter how long ago or how insignificant the comment seemed, so long as said comment involves something of great distress to the victim. Killing Joke is a vine-like plant that maintains its blue coloration making it easy to distinguish but it is able to move and burrow fairly quickly in order to reach victims, actually employing traps to bring creatures into range while remaining hidden. Killing Joke has only one known competitor - a plant called Phantasmal Flower. Both plants feed on psychic energy but the flower is able to choke out Killing Joke like a weed, preventing it from spreading into areas where the flower is present. The flower is not harmful to other creatures. A cure exists for the curse of the Killing Joke and can be administered to anyone who has survived its effects. Known Victims ;Jokeblue's Mother :Jokeblue's mother was afflicted with the curse of the Killing Joke, and later died while giving birth to Jokeblue, who was named after the plant. ;Xenith :Xenith's stripes were turned into gaping wounds, based on an offhand comment where she mentioned that she felt like an earth pony whose stripes were great wounds. ;Fluttershy :Prior to the war, Fluttershy once stated that she would "like to be a tree". Very soon after the Last Day, after Rarity teleported her to Zecora's Hut, she encountered some form of Killing Joke in a grove and was transformed into a large tree, a form she has existed in for two centuries after the war's passing, up until the end of the Wasteland Conflict where a cure was found by Velvet Remedy and she was restored to her original form. ;Unnamed Hellhound :One hellhound was caught in the Killing Joke's trap, turned into a pony, and later slain by its fellow hellhounds. It is very likely that this hellhound, like many other hellhounds, felt a strong sense of animosity towards pony-kind. |} Taint Taint, originally named the Impelled Metamorphosis Potion (or I.M.P.), is a viscous, rainbow-colored liquid designed by the Ministry of Arcane Sciences under the direction of Twilight Sparkle. It is a mutagenic agent, and was originally designed for transforming unicorns into more powerful alicorns. Its transforming capabilities require a very careful dosage, and the process of its formulation is extremely delicate and demanding, leading to many flawed batches being discarded. For this reason, indiscriminate contamination (especially if mixed with radiation exposure) is more likely to produce deformed monsters, as it has already happened for several species around the Wasteland, such as bloatsprites, floaters, hellhounds, and the hospital horrors. Taint is not shielded by air filters, and professional medical care is required to purge it from one's body after exposure. Any effects and mutations that have already taken place, however, are not reversible. |} Canterlot Canterlot is a distinct case in the Equestrian Wasteland due to the fact that it was never attacked by a traditional balefire bomb, but rather by a bomb that released the pink cloud upon detonation. Pink Cloud Pink Cloud is an entropic, necromantic, pink-hued gas that was originally released by bombs deployed by the zebra empire induring the Great War to strike Canterlot and eliminate the two Princesses, Celestia and Luna. It has a deadly effect on living beings, seeping into flesh and lungs, rotting it and melting it, and potentially liquefying bodies into heaps of organic matter. Even slight exposure can lead to severe complications, including organ failure and the permanent fusing of skin to objects in close contact, including clothes, PipBucks, jewelry, and even the ground or a chair if a victim remains still for an extended duration of exposure. It is almost always lethal, though in rare instances a victim can be turned into a particular variant of ghoul known as a Canterlot ghoul. Protections The Pink Cloud cannot be filtered by re-breathers or any kind of air filter, much like Taint, and thus gas masks are useless against this threat. Damage from Pink Cloud poisoning can be healed by way of normal healing potions. Water absorbs the gas extremely well, and as such, rain is able to purify the air of a short period of time, while creating deadly pools of poisonous water. Pink Cloud does not diffuse into water normally, but instead will form rivulets or ribbons of the substance that are pink in color. Environmental Effects The Pink Cloud has been slowly absorbed by inorganic matter--buildings, furniture, the earth itself--and is being slowly released into the air, causing Canterlot and several nearby cities (such as Zebratown) to still be severely hazardous despite the length of time since the gas release. Stables that have endured long-term exposure to the pink cloud were eventually breached due to corrosion. Pink Cloud also tends to concentrate in closed spaces where it does not get dispersed by the natural environment; such pockets are much more deadly than the open air due to density, making the cloud even more lethal than usual. Sources The largest continued source of Pink Cloud in Canterlot was a dragon that served as Canterlot's royal treasury guardian and a source of the dragon hatchlings that were gifted to the students of Celestia's school (including Twilight Sparkle's assistant, Spike). When the dragon was exposed to the Pink Cloud, she began to produce it through her snores, preventing it form ever dissipating so long as she lived. During the Wasteland Conflict, an insane alicorn residing in Canterlot Castle managed to cast a remote activated spell that would turn the dragon into something smaller, significantly lessening the amount of Pink Cloud created. Littlepip later activated this remote spell, which was tied into the fireworks switch for the Grand Galloping Gala inside Luna's bedroom in Canterlot Castle. The spell turned the dragon into a mouse, who later accompanied a Canterlot ghoul named Lionheart in battle against the Grand Pegasus Enclave during Operation: Cauterize. Broadcasters The pink cloud is also the responsible of the necromantic broadcasters phenomena: Inside the pink cloud's area of effect, Sprite-bot and PipBuck broadcasting signals have been weakened and corrupted, to the point where their signals has now a necromantic component and are able to kill a living creature entering its sphere of effect in mere seconds. Notable symptoms from exposure are severe headaches and bleeding eyes. Notes and Trivia *Many of the environmental hazards featured in Fallout: Equestria were inspired by analogues in the Fallout universe. **Balefire radiation shares many of its properties with nuclear radiation. **Taint (or I.M.P.) is very similar to the Forced Evolutionary Virus (or F.E.V.) in that it causes similar mutations and was used in controlled experiments to create super-powered versions of its creator species: I.M.P turned ponies into alicorns, while F.E.V turned humans into super-mutants. **The Pink Cloud is inspired by the Cloud, a red-tinted vapor that fills the Sierra Madre Hotel and Casino. It only appears in Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money. |} Category:Setting